Deep Stack HORSE and HOFer Tom McEvoy

I just came back from a trip to Las Vegas and have a brush with fame story. I played with Poker Hall of Famer Tom McEvoy. McEvoy won the 1983 WSOP Main Event and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame with Scotty Nguyen in 2013.

The day before returning home I signed up for the $300 HORSE Survivor tourney in the Deep Stack Extravaganza at the Venetian. Around these parts we call the Venetian’s “Survivor” structure “bankroll builders”. It’s effectively a satellite type structure. In this case – the top 12% of the field all get $2000 with any odd monies being paid out to the player finishing outside of the top 12%. In our case, we had 60 players sign up for Event #33 which translates to 7 players eligible for $2000 with the eighth player receiving the remaining $1240 in the prize pool.

My winnings!

I moved up and down over the first two levels (between 11K and 9k from our starting stacks of 10K). Over levels three, four and five my stack suffered and I dropped to a low of about 3800 chips before beginning my first comeback. Between levels six to eight I reach a peak of 32K chips and ended level 8 with 20.6K. That was the beginning of a near end as I dropped to 9100 chips left at the end of level 9 – just 4.5 big bets. Starting in level 10 I engineered a second comeback that would last me through to the end. As players dropped I continued to build or maintain my stack in a range of 10 to 14 big bets.

For 30 minutes in level 12 I played with Poker Hall of Famer Tom McEvoy. I was moved to his table. I only played 2 hands against him. The first was in Hold ’em. He raised my big blind and I defended. I check my whiffed flop. He bet and I folded. The other was in OH8. I had A/2/4/8 with the Ad and 4d. The flop came out two diamonds (A/3/5). I check called. I led the turn when the 8d came out. McEvoy folded. Shortly thereafter he was moved to the other table.

We only played through level 13. Sometime during level 11 or 12 the other table had begun talking chop possibilities (with about 12 players left). By the end of level 13 we were down to 11 players. At this point we came to the agreement to give the top three stacks their full $2000 with the rest of the remaining eight splitting the remainder – $1155 each.

My one complaint? How can the Venetian NOT have functioning tournament clocks? They use a kitchen timer (beep, beep a beep, beep, beep a beep). Really? You’re the Venetian. Get some tourney clocks.